Hip Hop Architecture

Zaha Hadid vs The Architecture Pirates

Will Hip Hop Architecture be so great, that it faces the same dilemmas as its music and apparel, Knock-offs? Its been said that imitation is the highest for of flattery, however, in the case of Zaha Hadid and the Wanging SOHO complex, imitation is appalling.

Superstar architect Zaha Hadid is facing a unique, if somewhat flattering, challenge: Contractor pirates copying one of her new, under-construction buildings. Hadid's Wangjing SOHO complex in Beijing (pictured) was scheduled for a 2014 opening; however, rogue developers in the city of Chongqing are building an illegal copy of Wangjing SOHO called Meiquan 22nd Century, which will replicate the complex, without compensation, in the inland Chinese city.

Although Hadid and property developer partner Zhang Xin have good odds of winning litigation under Chinese intellectual property law, they cannot freeze construction on the pirated Chongqing process. Hadid's project manager, Satoshi Ohashi, told Der Spiegel that “it is possible that the Chongqing pirates got hold of some digital files or renderings of the project.” For their part, Meiquan 22nd Century posted a statement on Sina Weibo saying that the project was “never meant to copy, only want to surpass.”